The book analyses the evolution of research and innovation policies in the world's leading countries. The last decade has witnessed a radical transformation of the landscape shaped after World War II, as described in the seminal collection edited by Richard Nelson in the early 1990s. Even though national systems have inherited different institutional arrangements and trajectories, analyses show three major converging trends in their public policies. There has been a retraction from support to large firms and programmes and a shift toward small to medium enterprises and the innovation infrastructure; the focus on public research and training capabilities is growing; and there has been a redesign of public intervention with the growing role of regions and states on one hand and multinational authorities on the other, particularly in the European Union. The authors, all leading scholars in innovation research, provide thorough analytical descriptions of the national innovation system in their country and set that system in historical perspective. Each chapter is written so the reader can easily make comparisons between countries and regions. Six major issues are identified and addressed in each chapter: * the dynamics of universities and their relations with the economy * the evolving role of defence R&D and other large public programmes * the growth of technology policies and the innovative capabilities of SMEs * the changing rationale for government laboratories * the growing role of regions in fostering innovation * the capability of government to adapt to rapid changes in innovation systems. This essential book will be of interest to scholars and students of science, technology and innovation policy, management, institutional economics and managers of research and innovation policies at a national and local level.

There has been a substantial rise in the number of entrepreneurship courses and programs at colleges and universities. Despite the rapid rise of undergraduate entrepreneurship, there have been few academic studies of this phenomenon. Little is known about the antecedents and consequences of these activities. Student Start-Ups: The New Landscape of Academic Entrepreneurship is the first book of its kind on student entrepreneurship. It sets out to provide a structured approach to understanding the development of the phenomenon by synthesizing and offering the best available quantitative data and new case studies from a range of countries and universities. In doing so, they present the evolution of different models of student entrepreneurship with insights and implications for practice, policy and research.

This book advances our understanding of university spin-off creation and development in environments outside the high-tech clusters of the US. While there has been substantial university spin-off activity internationally in recent years, a number of major aspects are little understood. The authors argue that the nature of universities is changing as reduced public funding reflects a public debate on their role in society. An important aspect of this international phenomenon is an increased emphasis on the commercialization of university research and on academic entrepreneurship. These new ventures therefore involve the spinning-off of technology and knowledge generated by universities. The authors adopt a multi-level approach in their examination of university spin-offs. European case studies are specifically selected to reflect the diversity of the institutional environment. In particular, units of analysis involving universities, technology transfer offices, spin-off firms, finance providers and individual entrepreneurs and teams are extensively analysed in quantitative and qualitative studies. To conclude, policy implications for the future successful development of spin-offs are identified. This fascinating book will appeal to a wide-ranging audience including academics, policy makers, researchers and practitioners with an interest in academic entrepreneurship and university spin-offs, and, more generally, in business and management and entrepreneurship.

There has been a substantial rise in the number of entrepreneurship courses and programs at colleges and universities. Despite the rapid rise of undergraduate entrepreneurship, there have been few academic studies of this phenomenon. Little is known about the antecedents and consequences of these activities. Student Start-Ups: The New Landscape of Academic Entrepreneurship is the first book of its kind on student entrepreneurship. It sets out to provide a structured approach to understanding the development of the phenomenon by synthesizing and offering the best available quantitative data and new case studies from a range of countries and universities. In doing so, they present the evolution of different models of student entrepreneurship with insights and implications for practice, policy and research.

Student Entrepreneurship aims to provide a systematic literature review on the topic, to discuss and suggest a workable definition, and to explore opportunities for further research on student entrepreneurship as a phenomenon and as a basis for theorizing. As is to be expected in an emerging phenomenon of interest, most studies are atheoretical and try to understand the phenomenon in and of itself. The more recent papers on the phenomenon have moved towards using a theoretical approach which could be challenged, changed, or extended in the relevant student population. This review of the literature shows that most studies describe the phenomenon and try to understand the motivations and/or characteristics of student entrepreneurs, while some make causal relations between those motivations and entrepreneurial behavior. The authors start by discussing the method used to systematically list the different contributions to the emerging literature of student entrepreneurship. Next, they describe the different contributions to the phenomenon of student entrepreneurship to the theory of entrepreneurship. Finally, they discuss how the uniqueness of the phenomenon can create unique opportunities for theoretical research.